Frequently asked questions

General
Issues > Twins

Why
can twins - who have an almost identical chart - be very
different?

The simple answer is that twins divide the chart between them.
Every horoscope contains several themes, archetypal figures,
inner contradictions, etc. A child who is not born a twin
will settle this within his or her own personality, choose to live
some of these issues and keep others in the background.
In the course of his/her life, some of the formerly unconscious
issues will be developed and expressed. The different roles within
the personality are all there as dispositions at the beginning of the
child's
life but will be developed at different times.

For twins, this is different. They 'divide' the chart between them
early in life. If they live and grow up together, they cannot both
enact the same roles which are part of both their personalities
but tend to choose
different roles. Often, the 'alpha twin' is stronger and
makes his/her choice, leaving the rest to the other.
This division can change in the course of a lifetime.
There are cases in which identical twins are brought up to
be really identical, by parents who find this so cute.
It is, in our opinion, psychologically very unhealthy to force
children into this game. In twin research, there are
striking cases of separated twins who have developed very
similar lives. This is no surprise if we think along
the lines described above. If the twins grow up separated,
the other does not occupy the roles they would like to
express themselves. Both can play the same roles, as indicated in
their identical horoscopes, because the other is not in
their way.

Liz Greene writes in a special paragraph for the Child's
Horoscope, the really excellent computerised report available
at Astrodienst:

The horoscope of a twin boy or girl
This child is
one of a pair of twins. He/She shares with the other twin
an almost identical birth horoscope. But any parent of
twins will recognise that each has his or her own distinctive
personality. Twins, sharing many personality characteristics,
often try especially hard to define their own psychological
territory, and often they do this by a kind of "division"
of the birth chart. One twin will appropriate certain
features of the horoscope while the other twin
will appropriate the rest. Twins tend to polarise. In
their need to assert a separate individuality they may
both unconsciously avoid sharing qualities which they
fear will make them too like the other. The perceptive
parent may observe that in early childhood twins periodically
exchange roles, each one trying out personality traits
which the other was displaying a little while earlier.
The polarising process sets in a little later on. As they
grow older and develop separate lives twins usually find
it easier to own and express those qualities they "gave
away" to the other twin in early life. And the unique
spark of individuality within will always ensure that,
even if they look alike, they will remain distinct individuals
with a unique journey through life.

Of course our computer cannot know whether a chart is
the chart of a twin. Only when this is indicated by the
person ordering the reports, the 'twin paragraph' is included
by our order processing staff.
If you want to order reports for twins, we offer the second
copy, which is identical in most cases except for the
name, at a very much reduced price of 25% of the regular
price if ordered at the same time.

What
kind of chart comparison can I do for twins? A composite chart
turns out the same as the natal charts. Are there other
methods?

The composite chart does not work for twins. The only approach for a
relationship
chart for twins which works, as far as we know, is the one by our
author Mona
Riegger, as used in the report "Horoscope for Two". It can
be ordered
in the Astro Shop.
Mona's approach makes a distinction between 'the older' and 'the
younger',
which is always defined with twins, even when born by cesarean
section. Then
she reverts some elements of the Davison relationship chart for the
younger
one, getting two distinctive charts. She is able to make very
interesting
deductions about the relationship between the two. Not accidentally
Mona
is a mother of twins.